Jason McCoy Gallery is pleased to present a selection of Flying Letters, a series of large works on paper by Elena del Rivero.

In Flying Letters, sewing, mending, and typewriting are employed as tools for drawing while the stylized image of a feather serves as overarching visual theme. Depicted in a range of sizes and assembled into groups of varying complexity, the leitmotif becomes increasingly abstract, transforming into complex rhythmic patterns.

Considered metaphorically, the feathers evoke notions of fragility, the tradition of letter writing, or the freedom of travel, for example, but del Rivero neutralizes the poetic tenor by means of formal simplification. Her subjects are captured with restraint and aim for distilling the core visual information; rendered in black on white, these elegant drawings, pay homage to the clarity of a typed letter. However, del Rivero's Flying Letters remain as layered and individually interpretable as any good text. This is enforced through the eclectic cultural references inherent in the work. Chinese ink paintings, American Indian feather regalia, featherworks of the Precolumbian Era, or the spare line drawings of Matisse, Hockney or Kelly, are plausible reference points. Striving for a sense of universality, del Rivero’s Flying Letters become an absorption field for diverse visual information.

Elena del Rivero was born in Spain in 1949 and has lived in New York since 1991. Her practice consists of drawing, painting, photography, installation, performance and video. Her work has been shown across the U.S. and internationally. Notable exhibitions include The New Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Reina Sofia, Madrid, The Institut Valenciá d’Art Modern, Valencia and the Drawing Center. In the past, she has been awarded the Prix de Rome, the Pollock-Krasner fellowship, The Creative Capital grant, NYFA and the Rockefeller Foundation fellowship at Bellagio Center.